Ernst Weissert, born 20 July 1905 in Mannheim Germany and died 2 January 1981 in Stuttgart was a teacher, general secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in Germany and co-founder and director of the Bund der Freien Waldorfschulen (Federation of free Waldorf schools), the Hague Circle and the Friends of Waldorf Education.
In 1919/20, he began to take part in the events of the left wingers and the so-called “Wandervögel” (Birds of Passage) where he forged friendships with young people that would become decisive for his future as they were seeking a life of truth and spiritually aware community.
In 1924 he became a member of the Anthroposophical Society and of the pedagogical working group in Tübingen, in which students prepared themselves to teach at the Waldorf School.
In 1926 Ernst Weissert pursued studies in Philology, and Archaeology in Heidelberg, but interrupted these to accompany a German family to Athens as personal tutor.
At Easter 1931, he began to teach at the Rudolf Steiner School in Berlin – initially Greek, Latin, French and Gymnastics, later as a Class teacher.
In 1943 his wife and children were evacuated and in 1944 he himself moved to Tübingen until he received his call-up orders, which he was able to change to service in the Medical Corps in Ulm.
He actively participated in the rebuilding of the Anthroposophical Society in Germany from 1946 onwards, being elected onto its executive in 1959 and acting as one of its General Secretaries from 1961 to 1978.
When the 1970s brought with them the rapid increase in new schools all over the world, he called on the School's movement to “leave behind us everything that is dated and wakefully grasp what is of the future.” In his article “Pädagogische Religion” (Educational Religion), he describes how the capacity for creative teaching can begin to grow: “The teacher must always ask himself how he can develop a sense of closeness to the child.” He has to “strive to develop a spiritual-educational sense of touch”.
Because of its fundamental attitude against educational selection – children in Waldorf schools are promoted according to their age – it was difficult to fit them into the state examination system.
Professor Becker describes how in negotiations with the different educational departments, Ernst Weissert and his colleagues achieved that through a bridging class at the end of a Waldorf schooling, students would be able to enter the state matriculation, in which they performed with better than average results.